EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - Home

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-May-2026 08:15 ET (27-May-2026 12:15 GMT/UTC)

Study shows link between ADHD and mental ill health in teens

University of Edinburgh
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have shed light on some reasons why young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – known as ADHD – are prone to anxiety and depression.

Journal: Journal of Attention Disorders
Funder: Medical Research Foundation

HKUMed demonstrates that ‘cloaked’ and safe human stem cells work, paving the way for off-the-shelf transplants without immune rejection

The University of Hong Kong
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), in collaboration with the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health in Toronto, Canada, have achieved a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine. The team has genetically engineered human stem cells that can ‘cloak’ themselves to evade immune rejection, while carrying a built-in kill switch to prevent tumour formation. This innovation opens the door to a safe, off-the-shelf source of cells and tissues, potentially transforming treatment for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart failure, and spinal cord injuries, without the need for lifelong immune suppression.

Journal: Stem Cell Reports

Smartphone healthcare app features motivate users to increase physical activity

University of Tsukuba
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at University of Tsukuba conducted focus group interviews to identify which features of smartphone healthcare applications motivate users to increase their physical activity. The study found that social support from family members and peers, together with app-based functions such as goal setting, reminders, and performance feedback, served as strong motivators. In contrast, limited time availability and work-related fatigue were consistently reported as major barriers to physical activity.

Journal: JMIR Formative Research

Teens using AI meal plans could be eating too few calories — equivalent to skipping a meal

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Can AI tools make meal plans that help us lose weight the right way? In a new study, a team of researchers compared AI’s meal planning abilities to those of a dietician. The results showed that AI-made meal plans – when compared to dietician plans – severely undercalculated the needed amount of calories and macronutrients like carbs and overemphasized other macronutrients like proteins and lipids. The team cautioned that teens should not solely rely on AI to make meal plans for weight loss, saying that the consistent deviation of five different AI models from nutritional guidelines recommended by health organizations could have negative effects on growing bodies.

Journal: Frontiers in Nutrition

Inconsistent labeling and high doses found in delta-8 THC products: JSAD study

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cannabis products containing delta-8 THC have spiked in popularity in recent years, from gummies and brownies to vapes, pre-rolls, and tinctures. These products are frequently marketed as “legal” cannabis and often come in youth-oriented packaging, while lacking clear and consistent cannabinoid-content labels and health warnings to keep consumers safe, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Journal: Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
Funder: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

“Smart photonic healthcare devices” how light is transforming the future of healthcare

Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

POSTECH · University of Oxford · Northwestern University, highlighting research trends in photonic nanomaterials and smart healthcare.

Journal: Advanced Materials

One-third of Americans making financial trade-offs to pay for healthcare

West Health Institute
Reports and Proceedings

About one in three U.S. adults, the equivalent of over 82 million Americans, report having made at least one daily life trade-off in the past year to pay for healthcare expenses, according to new research released today from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America. The most common actions taken are prescription rationing and non-adherence (15%) and borrowing money (15%).

SMART researchers uncover how bacteria suppress immune defenses in stubborn wound infections

Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology’s (SMART) Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) interdisciplinary research group, along side collaborators from SCELSE, at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Geneva (UNIGE), have made a breakthrough discovery revealing how a common bacterium, Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis), releases lactic acid to acidify its surroundings and suppresses the immune-cell signal needed to start a proper response to infection. By silencing the body’s defences, the bacterium can cause persistent and hard-to-treat wound infections. This study explains why some wounds struggle to heal even with treatment and why infections involving multiple bacteria are especially difficult to eradicate.

Journal: Cell Host & Microbe

Medicinal cannabis may offer relief for endometriosis and pelvic pain

University of Otago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Medicinal cannabis could provide a new treatment option for those with endometriosis, with a study led by the University of Otago in New Zealand showing it reduced pain, improved sleep and lowered anxiety.

Journal: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies